Just Those Little Things
by lemoncelloismyname
Summary: A dump for all my drabbles and oneshots about the members of the Fairy Tail guild (and a few others!)... but mostly Natsu and Lucy. CHAPTER SEVEN: Natsu and Lucy are sent of by their friends to collect firewood, and... things ensue. (But then again, don't they always.) DISCONTINUED.
1. Those Awkward First Meetings

Written for Fairy Tail Fluff Week Day Seven: Serendipity

Summary: Nalu. Modern AU. In which Natsu goes on a quest for a midnight snack and ultimately fails (but maybe finds something better instead).

AN: We need to have a Fairy Tail Awkward Moments and Sarcastic Humour Week because I would totally nail everything in it.

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Natsu was hungry.

And hungry may or may not have been a slight understatement.

On second thoughts, maybe he was just a bit more then hungry.

...

Actually it was a rather large understatement.

Saying that Natsu was hungry was like saying that Erza was kind of scary, or that Happy liked fish, or that Juvia had a mild crush on Gray.

Natsu wasn't just hungry,

Natsu was completely and utterly ravenous.

Right now he felt like he could eat a cow or six.

And then go on to eat everything else on the farm that they came from.

Including the people.

And the grass.

And the stuff in the slurry pit.

He was, after all, absolutely starving.

Now, if you told one of Natsu's friends this, they would probably stop what the were doing, stare at you for a while, before bursting into a fit of hysterical laughter because, after all, Natsu is always hungry.

Like always.

And that was the problem.

You see, Natsu and Gray, the guy who he shared an apartment with, were both extremely lazy people who, according to Lisanna, 'wouldn't get up off their asses and move if there was a meteor hurtling towards their sofa at ten thousand miles per hour'. And because of that neither of them had bothered to go out and buy any food for the past few weeks, and, due to Natsu's practically unquenchable hunger, they now had absolutely nothing in their cupboards.

Nothing.

Zero.

Na da.

Zilch.

And it was now two o'clock in the morning.

And Natsu had already scoured the entire kitchen twelve and a half times. The half had been when he had discovered an packet of doritos underneath the fridge and immediately eaten the entire thing, only to have to promptly run into the bathroom and throw up because they were mouldy and disgusting and him and Gray had been living in this apartment for three years now and neither of them ate doritos.

So who knew how long those things had been lying under the fridge for.

He had also found half a packet of polos down the sofa cushions, which he had eaten whole, and a bruised orange at the bottem of his ruchsack, which he had also eaten whole (skin and all).

There had been a cheese sandwich in his bag with the orange, but it was all weird and fluffy and he was ninety six percent certain that there had been something growing out of it, so he had decided that instead of devouring it with the orange and the polos he would hide it in ice prick's bed for him to find the next time he brought a girl home for the night.

After all, although most people would say that he ate anything and everything, even Natsu had to have some sort of limit to what he put inside his body.

And that sandwich was just ew.

So Natsu lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling miserably and clutching his empty stomach, and occasionally licking the polo wrapper desperately, as if to try and fill his belly with the dying flavout of cheap mints.

It was during one of these depressing licking sessions that a thought suddenly hit him on the head.

There was a vending machine at the end of their floor in their apartment building!

Natsu was up like a shot, rummaging around for the loose change he had found during his exploration of the kitchen. He then grabbed a random t-shirt from the floor and pulled it on backwards and, without even bothering with socks or shoes, sprinted out the door and down the corridor.

There! The vending machine was in sight! Natsu managed to slow himself down just before he ran head first into it.

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the change, inserting it into the machine and typing in the number that would deliver him into heaven.

As Natsu watched the chocolate bar fall from the shelf he realised that he was drooling.

He picked it up, opened the wrapper, and was about to devour it whole when he heard two people having a full blown shouting match around the corner from where he was standing.

And if there one thing that Natsu loved as much as food, it was listening in on other people's arguments and laughing at them in his head.

"Get your hands off me you cheating scumbag!"

That was girl, and although she sounded angry he could tell that she had been crying.

"Lucy I-"

And that, Natsu thought, must be the prick that had cheated on her.

"No! I have had enough of you and your late nights and your supposed work trips and your secret girlfriend! You should be happy that I'm going, after all it means you can spend more time with her."

"But-"

"No buts! This is my decision and it's my final one. You shoukd have thought about me before you started seeing her! I don't fucking care what your excuses are, I'm leaving regardless. So if you'll excuse me I'll-"

Something cut the girl off and Natsu, being Natsu, just had to poke his head around to see what was happening.

He was confronted with the image of a woman being pinned to the wall by her probable ex, and Natsu immediately found himslef curling his hand into a fist incase that jerk tried anything.

Even though it was cold, it was nighttime, he was half asleep and he was fucking starving, Natsu was itching for a fight.

Then again, Natsu was always itching for a fight.

He loved fights just as much as he loved food and listening to other people's arguments.

However, it turned out that there was no need for one.

"Lucy please," the jerk begged. "If you'd just listen to me I could-"

"Get your filthy hands off me asshole," the girl shouted. "If you wanted me to listen then you could have told me about her yourself. I am so done with you and your stupid stupid lying!"

"Lucy pleas-"

Natsu had to stifle a laugh as he watched the woman deliver a swift kick right into the jerk's balls. But instead he quickly ducked behind the corner again before either of them noticed him.

"Lucy wait!"

"Fuck off!"

Natsu heard someone storming towards him and prepared to make himself scarce, but before he could so much as take a step in the direction of his apartment the girl came flyimg around the corner and literally ran into him.

She was pretty, Natsu noticed, with long golden blonde hair and big chocolate coloured eyes, but her hair falling around her face messily and her eyes were red from crying. Her makeup was all smudged, and there was snot coming out of her nose.

She took a step back and looked up, taking in his messy hair and his bare feet and his back to front football shirt, and slowly the upset expression on her face turned into one of pure rage.

"Were you listening in on out conversation?" she practically screamed at him. "I can't believe someone would do tha-"

He interrupted her mid rant by shoving his untouched chocolate bar into her hands.

"You look like you need this more than I do," he managed to stutter out, before high tailing it back down the corridor to his apartment.

Only to immediately regret it when he realised that he once again had absolutely nothing to eat.

This was going to be a long night.

.

The next morning he was sitting half asleep in his psychology class, with an empty stomach and a killer headache, when someone set a bar of chocolate down on the desk in front of him.

He wearily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked up, only to find the blonde girl from last night standing in front of him, with bags under her eyes and fingers that were tapping nervously on his table.

Tap

Tap

Tap

"I'm sorry about last night," she started to say, but Natsu cut her off.

"You've nothing to be sorry for," he said with his mouth full of the chocolate bar he was currently devouring. "After all, you are my saviour at the moment."

She looked confused, so he gave her the simple version.

"I'm broke, we have no food, and I haven't eaten properly in two days."

She looked shocked at first, but her expression quickly changed to one of horror as something finally dawned on her. "Then that chocolate chocolate bar you gave me must have been... oh my gosh! I am so so sorry! If there's anything I can-"

He had to cut her off again. "It's fine, like I said last night, you needed it more than I did."

She paused for a moment, as if she was thinking about something.

"I know! I'll buy you lunch today, to make up for your chocolate bar. I'm Lucy by the way."

"I'm Natsu, and that sounds amazing."

He grinned at her, and when she smiled back part of him couldn't help but think that, although he had failed his quest to find a snack last night, he might just have stumbled upon something better.


	2. Of Ghouls, Ghosts & Pink Haired Hot Guys

Of Ghouls, Ghosts, and Pink Haired Hot Guys

Written for Fairy Tail Fluff Week Day One: Together/Come on!

Summary: Nalu. Modern AU. Lucy manages to get herself lost inside a haunted house and ends up teaming up with a pink haired hot dude to try and escape.

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"It's always more fun when we're together!"

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Lucy crept silently along the corridor, praying that nothing would jump out. A floorboard creaked somewhere behind her, and she could hear eerie moans coming from behind the closed doors as she passed. She felt something brush against her hair, and she had to raise her hand to her mouth to stifle a scream.

This was so stupid.

It had started off as an ordinary day out with her friends, a simple trip to the traveling fun fair that was visiting Magnolia for the summer holidays. It had been a great day out, filled with rides and sweets and having fun with people she cared about, but when they had seen a sign declaring that the fair's haunted house was the scariest in all of Fiore Lisanna had insisted that the group of girls just had go inside and prove how tough they were by not 'shitting themselves', as she had put it.

Not only had Lucy had agreed, she had also planned to slip away from the group, follow them at a distance for a while, jump out, scare them, and laugh in their faces about it for months afterwards. She hadn't, however, planned on getting lost.

And apparently she had also underestimated how terrifying the haunted house would be.

She came to a corner and peeked around it. Dead end. However, when she looked again, she noticed that someone had taped a piece of paper to the wall and, the voice inside her head shouting for her to leave it, crept slowly around the corner to see what it said.

The moment the tape lost contact with the stone bricks a distant drumming sound started off, echoing off the walls around her and adding to the tight feeling inside her chest. Dun. Dun. Dun. On the paper someone had drawn a tall stick man with long arms and a a suit and some trees beside him and written the word 'follows' in a childlike print.

Lucy sighed. Whoever designed this place had clearly been playing too much Slenderman. She had to remember that none of this was real; the people who ran the attraction were just trying to scare her.

And it was working.

Well, Lucy decided, she wasn't going to keep it that way. She refused to play their game for any longer.

Lucy scrunched up the piece of paper, threw it on the ground, and started jogging. She was going to get out of here, and she was going to do so with a calm and level headed demur.

She tripped.

The lights went out.

Lucy got up, dusted herself off, and looked around for a light switch.

There was a pair of glowing red eyes coming down the corridor after her.

Screw calm and level headed.

Lucy started running as fast as she could in the pitch dark hallway, keeping one hand on the wall beside her so that she would keep going in a vaguely straight line. She could hear footsteps behind her, and she didn't care that she was in a fun fair, that thing was real amd it was right behind her. The footsteps were getting louder and louder and loud-

They weren't coming from behind her anymore.

"Oof!"

Lucy crashed into something humam shaped, and was falling backwards when it reached forward, grabbed her, and pulled her into it's very very muscular chest.

The lights turned back on, and Lucy found herself clutching onto the shirt of a very handome pink haired stranger, who was looking down at her with a confused expression on his face.

"You can let go of my shirt now." His voice was slightly husky, Lucy noted, and she was so caught up in the relief of being in the presence of another human being that it took her a moment to process what he had actually said.

"Er, sorry," she managed to choke out while she hastily detached herself from his t-shirt.

The lights flickerd.

Lucy yelped and once again found herself clinging to the stranger's chest, which she quickly let go of.

"Are you okay?" He sounded concerned. Great, that was just what she needed; a hot stranger getting worried about her because she was acting like a child and getting scared of some crappy haunted house.

Speaking of haunted houses, she checked over her shoulder and found that thankfully those red eyes had vaniahed.

"Uh, yeah I'm fine. Absolutely fine. Definitely not scared at all." She laughed nervously.

He raised his eyebrow and smirked slightly. "Well that makes two of us. I'm Natsu by the way."

He held out his hand and she shook it.

"Lucy."

They were both silent for a moment.

"So," he said. "Are you here by yourself?"

"No, I was with my friends, but we got... seperated." She had embarrassed herself enough already without telling him about her failed attempt to scare them. "What about you? Did you get lost as well."

"Actually I was here with my mates, and me and this asshole Gray made a bet that we would come in here and split up, and whoever left the haunted house first had to be the other one's slave for the rest of this week and all of the next one."

"Oh." Lucy couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. "So you're not trying to get out of here then."

He laughed. "Of course I'm trying to get out of here, I'd rather be that ice prick's slave for the rest of my life then spend another moment in this god forsaken place. Not that I'm scared or anything. So are you trying to escape hell too then?"

She smiled. "I've been trying to get out of here since I got separated from my group. Unfortunately for me though I'm not very good at it."

"Same here. We should stick together though, it'll be less... creepy if we're not on our own."

"Sounds good." Lucy was over the moon. Not only was she no longer stuck in here by herself, the guy she was with seemed nice and also happened a decent piece of eye candy for her to stare at while they were walking.

Purely for distraction purposes of course.

They had been travelling for about ten minutes when the lights went out again.

Lucy jumped slightly when she felt something grab her wrist, and was about to scream when Natsu clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Shhh!" he hissed. "It's only me. I just want to make sure that we don't get separated."

Lucy nodded, not trusting herself to speak with out her voice squeaking, and silently prayed that he would remove his hand before he felt her face turning red.

When he did (thankfully), she turned around to where she thought he was standing and said "if we follow the wall we should be able to find our way out without bumping into anything."

"Screw that!" Natsu tugged on her arm impatiently. "I wanna get out of here as fast of possible. Come on, lets go!" And with that he tugged on her arm again, started pulling her along behind him,

And promptly ran straight into the wall.

"Shit!" He cursed loudly as the two of them stumbled backwards. "Ow, that was really sore."

"Stop complaining, it's your own fault for being so damn impatient!" Lucy snapped. "And now thanks to you I've forgotten which way we were going."

Natsu ignored her. "Seriously, it's bleeding. I think I've broken it."

She handed him a tissue.

Or attempted to anyway.

"Natsu, where abouts are you? I've got a tissue." She was waving her a hands around in front of her, unsuccessfully trying to find either her companion or he wall so she could try and get her bearings.

He grabbed her arm, and Lucy was left wondering how he always seemed to know where she was.

"You're shivering."

No shit sherlock. "Well it is bloody freezing down here." And she had been an idiot and left her jacket in Levy's car.

He didn't reply for a moment, but Lucy felt him let go of her arm and heard him shuffling around beside her.

"Here."

Lucy felt him drape something around her shoulders, and it took her a moment to realise that it was his jacket. She was suddenly very glad of the fact that there was no lights, as it meant that he was unable to se how red her face had just turned. "Th-thanks, but are you sure that you won't need it?" she managed to stutter out.

"Nah, it's fine," he replied with practiced ease. "I don't feel the cold very easily." Because of the darkness Lucy completely missed him awkwardly rubbing his neck.

They were both silent.

"You know, we should probably keep going," he added hurriedly.

"Yeah, let's go." She frabbed his wrist and started to pull him down te corridor again, being careful to avoid walking into any walls.

"Uhhhh Lucy? I'm pretty sure we were going in the other direction."

Oh.

.

They had been travelling for another few minutes when Lucy stepped on what she at first thought was just another ordinary stone brick on the floor.

Until it stared making a strange clicking noise and sinking into the ground.

"If a giant boulder suddenly falls from the ceiling I am so going to kill you Lucy." At this point it was hard to tell if he partner was being serious or not.

She was opening to reply when the door beside them slowly opened, completely on it's own accord.

Creeeeeeeaak.

She grabbed Natsu's arm, and this time did not immediately let go afterwards.

A pair of white glowing eyes appeared in the doorway and blinked at them.

"Come on Lucy, lets keep going." All of a sudden Natsu sounded slightly more a lot more uneasy.

"What's gotten your panties in a twist?" She replied, while rather ironically still holding firmly on to him. "Weren't you the one talking about how not scared you were ealier. It's just another animatronic."

"Yeah well I have a thing about animatronics." He shuddered. "What if that one actually has someone inside it?"

Lucy looked back at the glowing eyes, blinking in time with the creepy music that seemed to be coming from all around them. "Yeah.. on second thoughts we should pobably keep moving."

They started off at a fast paced walk, but every time Lucy looked back she could still see those eyes, and so pretty soon she found herself being dragged down the hallway by a sprinting Natsu. They could hear the animatronic clomping along behind them, and when Lucy strained her ears she could also just about make out what sounded like raspy breathing. It probably was just an ordinary animatronic, but what Natsu said had unnerved her quite a bit and on the off chance that there was a psycho muderer inside it she didn't really want to be the one around to find out.

They had just run around a corner whem Lucy lost her footing and tripped on a loose rock.

She stumbled and let go of Natsu's hand, and he kept running for a few more moments before he realised that she wasn't there anymore.

"Lucy? Lucy? Where are you?"

"I'm down here! I think I've sprained my ankle!"

She could hear the animatronic gaining on them, its clompy footsteps echoing off the stone corridor like those drums had earlier.

Clomp.

Clomp.

Clomp.

The lights turned back on.

Lucy looked up to find Natsu looking down at her with a worried expression on his face. He knelt beside her. "You okay?"

She put her finger up to his lips to quieten him."Shhhhh."

"What?" he whispered back.

"The animatronic thingy," she replied. "I can't hear it anymore."

He got up and slowly crept towards the corner they had just run around, where he cautiously poked his head around for a few secomds before wandering back over to her.

"It's gone."

"What?!" She said a bit too loudly. "How can it be gone?"

"I know right? And there's not even any doors leading off that corridor. It's really weird." He paused. "Anyway, thats not the main problem right now. How's your ankle doing? Do you think you can walk on it? I kind of recognise this corridor so I think we're nearly there."

"I'll give it a go." She replied.

As it turned out, that was easier said then done. Natsu helped her to her feet, but the moment he let go of her arm her ankle gave way, and she would have fallen back down if he hadn't caught her.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, holding her at arms length and checking her over for injuries.

"Actually, I'm not so sure if I can walk the rest of the way." She looked up at him, and found him staring right back at her.

"I'm sorry about your nose," she added, noticing that there was indeed what looked like dried blood covering the skin above his mouth and dotting patches of his scarf.

He laughed. "You've nothing to be sorry about. It was my fault for trying to run ahead anyway. It's not the worst it's been through; I've broke it moee than once while playing rugby." He reached up and attempted to wipe the blood away with his hand, but instead he only suceeded in smearing it across his face instead.

"You missed a bit," she mumbled more herself than him while reaching up and rubbing at it with her sleeve.

It was only after she had withdrawn her hand again that she noticed how close they were standing to each other, and she felt the blush creeping slowly back into her cheeks.

"Er, thanks." He coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "We should probably get moving now."

"Yeah, that's a good idea, come on, let's go," she said hurriedly, while turning away from him before he noticed the pink that was once again starting to cover her cheeks,

And promptly collapsing as her ankle once again gave out underneath her.

"Don't even think about it," she growled at him, as he laughed and mumbled something about it being her own damn fault for being so impatient.

She ended up clinging onto his arm and limping to to exit while he kept his hand on her waist for support.

.**

Daylight! (Well, evening light!)

They were finally free!

It took Lucy's eyes a moment to adjust to the brightness from the lights at the fair. When they finally did she spotted her friends standing a few metres away, so she let go of Natsu's arm and slowly hobbled over to them.

Cana was the first to say something. "Hey Lucy! We thought we'd lost you forever down there."

She paused, before smirking and elbowing her friend in the ribs. "And who's that hot piece of meat you were holding onto a minute ago? Are you two a thing now or something?"

Lucy stared t her friend in shock for a moment before finding her voice again. "T-that's Natsu, and it's not like that! We just bumped into each other and decided to stick together until we got out!"

Cana winked at her. "And are you sure you didn't get up to anything else particularly naughty doen there?"

"Cana!"

The brunette sighed, dejected. "Is it my fault for wanting to be supportive when I thought that one of my friends had finally lost her virginity?"

Lucy growled.

"She's right though, the two of you would make a cute couple."

"Mira," Lucy groaned. "Not you too."

Lisanna joined in. "I bet that's why they took so long getting out. He even has blood on him Lucy, what exactly did you two do down there?!"

"Yeah Lu-chan! You liiiiiike him."

As her friends continued to tease her, Lucy checked over her shoulder to see if Natsu could hear them. Luckily for her, he seemed to be oblivious to what was being said about him by her so called 'friends'.

"Yo ice chicken!" she heard him shout at someone. "How long have you been waiting for me?"

"Long enough dickhead," the other guy, Gray, replied. "You took your sweet ass time getting out of there."

"That's because I was too busy proving to how un-scared I was."

Lucy snorted. Yeah right.

Not that she had been any better herself.

"And while we are on the topic of that haunted house I think you have a bet to fulfill, right slave?"

Gray said nothing.

"Great!" Natsu grinned. "I'll take that as a yes." He paused, clearly trying to decide on something. "And your first order is that for the rest of your time as my slave you have to replace every swear word you say with the name of a food dish that is exactly nine syllables long. No more, and no less. Got it?"

"You son of a bitc-"

Natsu coughed.

"I mean you son of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Natsu smilled again. "Perfect! And my second order is that you buy me, Lucy and-" he hesitated. "And all those girls standing beside Lucy fish and chips from that stand over there!"

Gray growled. "Fuc- tuna and pasta bake with ketchup! That's just unfair, you know I'm practically broke already."

"Maybe I do, slave, but what was it that you said the time you let Jellal dye Happy blue, or the time I got beaten up by Erza for picking a fight with that metal freak, or the time you got me suspended for putting that platypus into the staff toilets in school?" Natsu stroked his chin for a moment and pretended to think about something. "Oh yeah! It was DONT EXPECT ANY SYMPATHY FROM ME FUCKFACE. Come on Lucy and Lucy's friends, Peanut butter jelly time over hear is going to buy us all dinner!"

...

("Also, tuna and pasta bake with ketchup? Thats fucking disgusting man."

"Natsu-san, why is Gray-sama naked?"

"Shi- spaghetti bolognese in a pie!"

"Ew."

"Nice abs."

"Cana!")


	3. A Series of Mostly Unfortunate Events

Holy crap guys five follows and two favourites already! Thank you all so much (it's nice to know that I'm doing something right!)

Right now I'm basically just uploading oneshots from my tumblr, and those are going to run out pretty quickly at his rate, so if anyone wants to leave a request in the review thingy I'd be more than happy to oblige :)

This was written for Nalu Week, but it didn't stick to any of the original prompts because I'm a lazy littke shit.

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Lucy sighed, tapping her foot and looking at her watch for the umpteenth time in the past ten minutes. No, like the last time she had checked, time still hadn't suddenly decided to move at light speed, and it was still a quarter to twelve.

She sighed again, louder this time, and earned herself a few dirty looks from the people standing behind her. It wasn't like it was her fault that the stupid fat asshole in front of her had noticed that they were selling cream eggs at seven for the price of three and had decided to buy every single one in the entire store.

Every single fucking one.

The poor cashier, who had been forced to count them all of them by herself, was starting to look more than just slightly flustered at the obvious irritation of the eight or so people in the queue, but Lucy just couldn't bring herself to care.

Not at eleven forty five pm, when she had to be back at her dorm in fifteen minutes or else she would be locked out for the night because of that god forsaken curfew.

Finally the man in front of her was finished and Lucy was able to be served. The cashier was extremely quick at buzzing her stuff through and Lucy suspected that this was because she she didn't want to annoy the others in the line any more than they already were.

Lucy once again checked her watch as she went to leave the building, only to discover that she only had seven minutes to reach a building that happened to be a ten minute walk away.

And, to make matters worse, it was raining.

Actually it was a lot more then just raining. Lucy stuck her hand out and quickly withdrew it again when she felt golf ball sized drops of water hitting it in a furious pelt. She glanced out the door and discovered that she could bearly see ten feet in front of her due to the rain being so heavy. How the hell was she going to make it back to the dorm in time like this?

She smiled. It was lucky that she had brought her umbrella with her.

Lucy reached into her bag and drew out the aforementioned object, pushing it up and preparing herself to leave the shelter of the supermarket. She stepped out cautiously, both hands clutching tightly on to her umbrella, only to promptly dicover that she had walked right into the path of someone else.

The body of the other person slammed into her, and Lucy let go of her umbrella in suprise and found herself falling back back towards the main road, unable to find any grip on the slippery pavement below.

A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, steadying her and pulling her to safety.

"I'm so so sorry," Lucy gushed, temporarily forgetting that she had seven, no, six minutes now to get back to her dorm. "I'm really really very sor- oh, its you."

Lucy's change of attitude was caused by the fact that she had finally managed to to get her hair out of her eyes, and because of this she was now able to see who her 'saviour' was.

"And I love you too Lucy." Natsu Dragneel smirked, that cocky, arrogant smirk that she absolutely despised, and Lucy found herself once again seething to merely be in the presence of her arch nemesis.

Who, by the way, she definitely definitely definitely did not have a crush on.

Definitely.

Well, maybe she did.

But only a little.

Still, of all the people that she could have bumped into, anyone in the entire world, it just had to be him, didn't it. it was official now, this night could not get any worse.

"So Lucy, what brings you out here in his beautiful weather?"

She ignored him and continued to search for her umbrella, which she had dropped when he had run into her.

She spotted it, lying in the middle of the road after being run over by what looked like five cars and a double decker bus with a ten thousand ton fat guy eating cream eggs on top.

In other words, it was absolutely ruined.

"Look what you did to my umbrella, you son of a bitch."

He didn't even have the grace to pretend to look sorry. "Me?" he said in a mocking tone. "It was you who wasn't looking where you where going."

That asshole. He had run into her, broken her favourite umbrella and hadn't even apologised. Now how the heck was she going to get back to the dorms without getting more soaked than she already was.

Oh.

The realisation hit her, and all her anger immediately vanished as she looked up at him with panic in her eyes. "The dorms," she whispered. "They shut at midnight."

His eyes widened. "Oh shit."

He grabbed her wrist and started sprinting, and she stumbled along behind him and checked the time as they ran.

"We have four minutes," she shouted at the top of her voice.

He said something back, but the words were lost in the roar of the cars and the sounds of the rain.

"What?!"

"I said, we can still make it of we run faster." And, to coincide with his words, he started to pick up the pace while still pulling her along with him.

Lucy tried her best to keep up with him, she really did, but she was cold and tired and soaked to the bone, and the pavement was really slippy, and pretty soon she found herself being dragged along by him again.

"Keep up, will ya," he shouted back. "We'll never make it with you going along at a snail's pace."

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, only to find that she was completely out of breath. "W-well, we can't all be fucking semi professional athletes now, can we?" she just about managed to gasp out.

He ignored her. "How much longer do we have?"

Lucy glanced down at her watch. "About two and a half minutes."

They ran around another corner, and Lucy narrowly missed tripping over a bump in the pavement. She looked up at Natsu, who seemed to be contemplating something.

He looked at her, looked around them, glanced ahead for a moment, and looked back at her again. "Ah fuck it," she heard him mutter over the rain, and before she knew it he had picked her up and was carrying her bridal style while continuing to run.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she yelled, while hitting him repeatedly on the shoulder. "If you don't put me down right now then I swear I'll-"

"You'll do what Lucy?" He grinned down at her, knowing full well that at the moment she wasn't in a position to do anything particularly harmful.

She ignored him.

"Well," he continued, "I have absolutely no desire to spend tonight locked outside in the rain, and if getting back on time means carring you then so be it."

"I'd honestly rather you left me out here by myself," she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

He didn't say anything.

They reached the dorms and, without even bothering to put her down first, Natsu ran up to the door and attempted to kick it open.

It didn't work.

He hurriedly set her down before trying again to open it.

Still nothing.

Lucy joined him at the door, and together the two of them pushed and pulled and banged and twisted the handle and shouted until their throats hurt, but there were no answers and the door remained closed.

"Well shit." Despite the horrid situation they had gotten themselves into, Natsu didn't actually sound that annoyed. He paused. "I know! Why don't you phone someone to come down and let us in?"

Despite the fact that she was already reaching for her mobile, Lucy couldn't help but feel irritated at the fact that he was telling her to do something rather than doing it himself. "Why, where's your phone?" she asked rather rudely.

"Up my ass," he replied, rolling his eyes at her. "I left it in my room, what do you think?"

She ignored him and continued to search for her phone. It wasn't in the back pocket in her jeans where she usually put it, and it wasn't in her bag either.

Lucy paused her search, and tried to think about where she had had it last.

"Take your sweet fucking time," Natsu muttered. "It's not like any of us are standing outside in the rain getting soaked."

Asshole. If he hadn't bumped into her in the first place then none of this would have happene- oh.

Lucy groaned, and sank to the ground dramatically with her back against the door. "My phone must have fallen out of my back pocket when you bumped into me."

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure it was you who bumped into me."

She glared at him. "Natsu, I'm really not in the mood right now."

She was cold and tired and hungry, it was absolutely bucketing and she was locked out for the night. No, she really was not in the mood to get into a petty argument with the guy she simultaneously hated and fancied like hell.

As the enormity of the situation she was in finally dawned on her Lucy had to fight to choke back her sobs. Natsu moved to sit down beside her, and after a moment he awkwardly put his arm around her shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.

"Well," he said after a moment. "This is a right mess we've gotten ourselves into."

Lucy wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

"Well be okay though, I promise." She wasn't sure why, but for some reason she felt like she could believe him.

They sat there for a while in silence, watching the rain fall around them, but eventually Natsu stood up, stretched and turned aroumd to look down at her.

"It doesn't look like anyone is coming down, so we should probably start to look for somewhere woth better shelter."

Lucy nodded wordlessly, and Natsu helped her stand up.

"Come on," he said. "I think I know somewhere that might do the trick."

.

Lucy stood still, and silently observed the small dry area beside the bins behind their apartment that Natsu had brought her to. The fact that he had practically dragged her here without even stopping to think about it first lead her to believe one thing, which she had no trouble voicing out loud to him.

"You've been locked out before, haven't you?"

He shrugged, "yeah, so?"

"Idiot," she muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes ever so slightly.

He raised his own eyebrows at her. "Said the girl who happens to have managed to get herself locked out. In the rain, might I add."

"Excuse me!" She snapped. "The last time I checked you were locked out here too!"

He raised his hands in the air as a sign of defeat. "Okay, okay, whatever." He paused. "It's not really much of a big deal anyway, sure everyone gets stuck out here for the night at some point, right?"

Lucy ignored his question, and instead occupied herself with finding a suitable spot on the ground for her to sit down. That didn't take long, and pretty soon she found herself leaning against one of the large bins, with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. The bin stank, but at least ot was dry and reasonably sheltered from the frequent gusts of wind that blew down the alleyway. She continued to not answer her question, and instead occupied herself with attempting to wring out her soaked hair.

Unfortunately for her, Natsu picked up on her lack of response, and it didn't take him to long to figure out what it meant.

"Your kidding, right? Er- I mean, you've never actually been locked out before?" He laughed. "Gosh Luce, you're such a prude!"

Lucy felt her face turning pink, and refused to meet his eyes as she continued to fix her hair. "W-well, we don't all spend our nights out at those ridiculous parties that you go to!"

"So, what you're saying is you don't get locked out at night because you'd rather spend your time inside working than out having fun?" He sounded amused, and Lucy had to keep herself from blushing more.

"Yes! Er, no! I mean no! It's not that I'm never invited, i-its just that I choose not to go. I just have er, better things to do. And besides, the landlady hates me enough already, never mind what would happen if I showed up drunk! And, I not a prude, you sonofa-"

Lucy stopped mid sentence when she finally looked up, only for find that Natsu was still standing with his back to her, and he was taking his shirt off.

Why the hell was he doing that?

She definitely did not find herself staring as the taunt muscles in his back flexed when he stretched his arms above his head, nor did she find herself admiring the way that the light from a nearby streetlight reflected on his wet skin. She didn't subconsciously sit a little straighter and she didn't angle her body so that she would have a better view and, above all, she certainly did not have to resist the sudden urge to reach out and see if his muscles were as hard and as well defined as they looked.

Definitely definitely not.

No way.

Not even a little.

...Okay, maybe she was ever so slightly lying to herself again.

But just slightly.

"Like what you see?"

Natsu's teasing comment snapped her out of her daze, and she quickly turned her head to look away from him.

"What!?" She stammered. "No, o-of course not!"

"You look like you're about to start drooling Luce," he replied flatly.

Oh shit.

"No I wasn't! It's just cold!" Lucy could usually tell that she was doing a bad job at lying when she found it hard to convince herself, and right now she knew that that excuse was probably one of the worst she had heard in her entire life. She would have to resort to plan B; look determinedly in the other direction until she either (a) stopped blushing, (b) got her hormones under control or (c) Natsu put a shirt on.

Something slightly damp hit her in the face, and Lucy looked down to find Natsu's shirt balled up on her lap. "What's this for?" she asked slowly, trying to keep the blush out of her voice and still firmly looking in the other direction.

"You can use it to dry your hair if you want."

Lucy grunted a reply and stared down at the piece of fabric on her lap. After a moment of thought she decided that it would be in her best interests to comply with his suggestion so, while still determinedly looking away from him, she picked up the shirt and began to rub her hair dry.

When she looked back at him he had put his soaking jacket on again. He stretched and slowly made his way over to where she was sitting, zipping up his jacket as he went. When he reatched the spot beside her he sat down so close to her that their bodies were practically squished together as one.

She opened her mouth to complain, but he cut her off. "Before you say anything, this is purely to conserve body heat, right?" She grunted a reply. "And I promise I won't try anything, okay?" he added, his voice slightly softer. "I'm not that much of a dickhead." Lucy nodded again, and the two of them sat there in silence for a while.

"You know Lucy," Natsu piped up suddenly, "I've been meaning to ask you something for a while." Lucy simply hummed in reply, not really concentrating, and he continued. "Why do you think it is that we never really get along? I mean, we're always fighting, we always have been, and I never really understand why. I feel like it would be a lot easier for both of us if we at least tried to be friends with each other."

No, she thought, no it wouldn't. It's easier for me to pretend to hate you because that way I can hide the fact that I may or may not be madly in love with you as well.

But at the same time, that is starting to hurt a bit, and I suppose it would be nice to be friends with you for a change.

But she couldn't say that out loud.

She laughed instead, and she could hear the bitterness in her voice as she replied. "I guess it's just the way things are. You're Natsu and I'm Lucy, and we hate each other. That's just the way it's always been." But, it doesn't have to stay that way, she added in her head.

Natsu didn't say anything for a while, and she assumed that he had just fallen asleep. However, when she glanced at his face to check she discovered that he was simply staring into the distance with a slightly glassy look in his eyes.

"Natsu?" Nothing. "Natsu, are you alright?"

His head snapped around to face her, and Lucy found herself staring into his eyes, only noticing for the first time that they were a deep dark onyx colour. She felt herself leaning forward slightly, and didn't miss how his gaze flickered down to her lips for a few seconds before coming back up to meet her own gaze again.

They only sat there for a few seconds, but to Lucy it felt like an eternity. After a moment Natsu coughed, and as time began to move normally again. Lucy had to turn her head away from him to hide the furious blush that was once again making its way into her cheeks.

"We should probably try and get some sleep." Natsu said haistily, and Lucy quickly agreed with him. The sooner this night was over the better.

She leaned back against the cold brick wall behind her, pulling her knees up to her chest in an attempt to conserve body heat. She closed her eyes and sat there, listening to the loud patter of the rain and the steady breathing of the man beside her.

And, as she finally felt herself drifting off to sleep, she thought she heard Natsu murmur one last thing, although it was so quiet she could never be sure whether he had actually said it or not.

"I could never hate you Lucy."

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.

.

Daylight hit Natsu's face, and he yawned and reached up to rub his eyes.

Wait.

Daylight?

He was supposed to be at training right now! Why the hell was he still in bed?!

Something on his lap moved slightly, jolting Natsu to his senses. He was sitting somewhere outside, judging by the cold pavement below him and the sound of traffic nearby. His jacket was slightly damp and the bricks feom the wall he was leaning against were sticking into his back. Most importantly though probably the fact that there appeared to be someone sleeping on top of him, their warm body pressed up against him.

Natsu opened his eyes and groaned, and suddenly the memories of the previous night came flooding back to him. He had missed the curfew and got locked out, he remembered, which meant that right now he was probably in the alleyway behind the dorms that he and his friends often found themselves sleeping in at times like this.

He looked down. Lucy Heartfilia was curled up on his lap, her hands clutching his jacket and her face buried in his chest. As he watched her she ahofted slightly and mumbled something, before snuggling even closer to him. Natsu closed his eyes, leaned his head back and smiled, wrapping his arms back around Lucy's waist.

On second thoughts, maybe he would juat stay here for a bit longer.


	4. Is Túisce Deoch ná Scéal

AN: *gets down on knees* please please please send me some writing prompts/requests! I've got a massive writer's block at the moment and I have nearly run out of one shots to post

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"I 'hink it needs s'more chilli."

Natsu peered over her shoulder, staring at the bubbling mess in the pot that she was currently stirring and reaching down to dip his finger in it, taking an experimental lick.

"Yup," he slurred, still sucking on the tip of his finger. "Definitely more chilli." He paused, considering something. "You try some," he commanded, and when she made no move to do so he tutted and reached down to scoop up some more of the mess so he could attempt to feed it to her.

He missed her mouth the first time, and Lucy giggled as he accidentally smeared cake mixture over her cheeks. "Oops," he mumbled, wiping it off with his hand, "sorry 'bout that Luce."

By the third attempt he managed to get his fingers in her mouth, and he hummed appreciatively as she licked them clean, swirling her tongue around the tips. "That tickles Luce!" he gasped, and she grinned and sucked harder. He retaliated, slipping his free arm around her and tickling her on her belly. Soon the two of them were bent double over the stove, clutching their stomachs and laughing madly.

"Natsu," Lucy gasped as they straightened themselves up again. "Natsu, there's cake mix in m'hair." She flicked said hair over her shoulder, and it was met with an "oof!"

"Luuuucy," Natsu whined, pulling strands of golden hair away from him, "you hit me in the face."

Lucy turned around and discovered Natsu looking down at her, his hands on his hips and a small pout on his face. She dabbed a blob of the cake mix on his nose, before turning back to face the pot again. "If you complain then you won't get any of this cake," she scolded, once again returning to stirring the mixture.

Natsu rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her midsection, absent-mindedly fiddling with the hem of her -his- shirt. "But Luucy," he moaned, nuzzling against her neck and pulling her body flat against his, "that's so unfair!" He hesitated, and experimentally sniffed the air. "Sweet food's disgusting anyway, it would taste soooo much better with some chilli."

His breath was tickling her skin, and Lucy giggled again. "Cake isn't meant to be spicy," she scolded, tapping him on the knuckles with the wooden spoon. She paused, and scooped some of the mixture up, pouring it back into the pot and watching as the lumpy mixture trickled off the spoon like water. "I don't think cake's supposed to look like this either."

Natsu looked at it and nodded, understanding. It looked more like soup than cake. "Maybe you should add s'more flour," he suggested. "It makes things more solidy, right?"

Lucy visibly perked up at his suggestion. "Yeah, I think so!" She picked up the bag of flour and poured the entire thing into the pot, and a large white cloud filled the room.

Natsu sneezed as the floor flew up his nose, and he frantically waved his hands around in an attempt to fan the cloud away. When it had finally cleared he saw Lucy, staring at the pot with a dejected look on her face. "Did it work?" he asked, moving to stand beside her.

She looked up at him. "Is the cake s'posed to be on fire?"

Natsu glanced at the stove. The cake was indeed on fire. He reached out and grabbed the pot, lifting it up and slurping down the flames. He burped, loudly. "Those," he slurred, "were the best flames I've ever tasted."

Lucy grinned proudly, but her smile immediately faded when she noticed the dangerous glint in his eye. He moved towards her, stumbling over his own feet as he went, and lifted her on to the counter, spreading her legs and standing between them.

He smirked, and her eyes widened even more. "'M ready for my desert now."


	5. Pink is the Warmest Colour

Summary: Natsu and Lucy go paint shopping, but they end up getting a little... distracted.

AN: This was written for an epic prompt by NatsuStoleTheTardis, with a side order of domestic nalu by me cause I'm trash. My favourite part of writing this had to be googling the names of shades of pink paint and laughing at some of the more ridiculous ones. My personal favourite had to be the one called 'Here's Johnny', but I don't think the characters in the Fairy Tail universe would have appreciated it as much. I swear every single paint name mentioned in this were ones I found on google XD

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"Luce," Natsu moaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "remind me exactly what I'm supposed to be doing here."

His pregnant wife looked up from the two paint swatches she was currently examining. "I've told you already," she responded, a hint of irritation starting to show in her voice, "we're supposed to be picking a colour for the baby's room."

"Yeah I know Luce," he said, stifling a yawn. "But you can do that by yourself. Why do I have to be here?"

Normally Natsu would jump at the opportunity to spend time with the love of his life, but he had just returned from a two month long mission and right now the only place he wanted to be was curled up in his bed. And besides, while he did love being around Lucy and had missed her terribly during his time away, watching her choose paint for their baby's room wasn't the most... compelling activity.

In the beginning he had attempted to help with the paint choosing, but he quickly gave up after Lucy shot down every single suggestion that he made before deciding that it was maybe better to just let her pick the colour.

"We're supposed to be picking this paint together, it is our baby after all," she replied, picking up a third swatch and holding it against the other two. "And besides, I need you to carry the paint pots back."

Natsu ignored the second comment, putting it down to the fact that since the beginning of her pregnancy Lucy's tact had gone out the window, and instead focused on the former one. "But every time I've suggested something you've just dismissed it," he complained.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "That's because you wanted to paint our baby's room white! White is such a boring colour, and it would have clashed with the white cot that Laki made us." She sighed, pushing her hair out of her face, before replacing the third swatch back onto the shelf again.

Natsu nodded, pretending to understand, when there were actually about a million things he could have retorted. He kept his mouth shut though, if there was one thing he had learned over the past six months, it was that the only thing worse then an irritated Lucy out for his blood was an irritated, hormonal, pregnant Lucy out for his blood.

"What do you think about these ones?" she asked, leaning over and holding out the two swatches that she had been stressing over for ages. "I really like the orange one, but I think having it on all four walls might be a bit much, and that baby blue one is really nice, but if the baby turns out to be a girl then I don't know if I'd like it as much, and I was thinking about that mint green over there, but I think it might make the room seem quite cold, don't you?"

Natsu nodded again, stifling yet another yawn and doing his best to feign interest. Holy crap this was boring. He was beginning to wonder if it was possible to sleep while standing up.

"And there's a lovely shade of lilac a few shelves back," Lucy continued, oblivious to her husbands disinterest, "but once again if the baby is a boy then lilac wouldn't really do." She sighed. "This would have been so much easier if we had asked for the gender, wouldn't it?"

Natsu, whose dragon senses had told him that they would be having a girl long before any medical practitioner could hope to, was considering informing his wife of that fact, but managed to restrain himself when he thought of how angry she would be if he actually did spoil the surprise for her.

Some of the other (male) customers in the shop were beginning to give him sympathetic looks, and Natsu decided he should probably try and calm his wife down before she had another of her mood swings.

He moved so he was standing directly behind Lucy and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder and rubbing circles on her swollen stomach. "D'ya know what would make this shopping trip a million times easier," he murmured, his breath tickling her ear.

She unconsciously leaned back against him, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. "What?"

He smirked. "If we grabbed the nearest tins of paint and hightailed it out of here, never to return."

"Natsu!" She jerked away from him and spun round, hands on her hips and a half irritated, half amused look on her face. She paused, and looked up at him. "I'll tell you what," she said, the smile on her face widening, "if you can make it through this without complaining and you help me pick the paint then when we get home I'll make you curry for dinner."

Natsu perked up at the mention of his favourite food. "Sure Luce!" He grinned. "I'm all fired up now!"

For the next ten or so minutes Natsu did his very best to be a perfect husband. He feigned interest as best as he could, tried to give advice on paint, and agreed with everything that Lucy said, but his enthusiasm wore of quickly, and pretty soon he found himself back at the start again. "Luuuucy," he moaned dramatically, "how can it take you so long to choose a flipping paint colour. We've been here for hours."

In response his wife turned round sharply and glared at him, and from the look in her eye Natsu immediately knew that he had overstepped his boundaries. He raised his hands in defeat and subconsciously took a step backwards. "Okay okay," he said, "I get it! No complaining! I'm, uh, just going to go and, er, look at some of the paint over there, but I'll be right back, 'kay?"

And before Lucy could even say anything he had dashed off to the safety of the other side of the store.

.

Lucy sighed, shaking her head and smiling as she watched her husband run away from her. It never ceased to amaze her how Natsu Dragneel, one of the most powerful mages in Fiore, could be so terrified of her sometimes. He had faced off against some of the most evil beings in Earthland, and yet the moment his wife so much as put her hands on her hips and glared at him he was running off as far away as possible in the opposite direction.

Mavis, she'd missed him so much.

The past two months had been absolute hell for her. Natsu had been a solid presence in ber life for what felt like forever, and having him gone for long periods of time always shook her up slightly. However, the moment Natsu had discovered she was pregnant he had refused to let her go on any missions, instead taking on as many high paying jobs as he could, even if it meant that he was away for ages.

A jolt in her stomach pulled her back to the present, and Lucy placed her hand on her bump and smiled down at it. "Thanks Nash," she whispered, slowly rubbing circles over where she felt her child kicking. "I'll get back to choosing your paint now."

It took her a further ten minutes of examining the paint swatches before she decided to take a shade of turquoise, by which time Natsu had still not returned. Wondering what sort of mess her husband had managed to get himself in to now, Lucy set off to look for him in the store.

She found him, a few minutes later, standing in the asile containing the pink paint, holding what looked like about twenty different swatches.

"Natsu," she hissed, "what the hell are you doing?"

He jumped at the sound of her voice, dropping several of the swatches in the process, and spun around to face her.

She glared at him. "I thought I told you not to look at pink paint," she added. "Y'know, incase the baby turns out to be a boy."

He laughed nervously. "No, it's nothing to do with the baby," he said, subconsciously rubbing the back of his neck. "It's just, well, er, I was looking for the salmon one."

Lucy stared at him. What the heck did that mean?

"I thought that if I could find the salmon paint swatch then I could use it to prove to everyone that my hair isn't pink, it's salmon," he explained, noticing the confused look she was giving him.

Lucy stared at him for a moment longer, before breaking into a fit of giggles. Soon she was doubled over with tears streaming down her face, laughing her head off. "Y'know salmon is a shade of pink, right?" She asked him when she had regained some of her composure. "So even if you do find one entitled 'Salmon' then you'll just be providing to everyone that your hair is pink."

He looked at her for a moment before shrugging dejectedly. "Yeah," he mumbled, moving to dump the pile of swatches on to the nearest shelf, "I guess you're right."

She started forward and snatched one of the swatches out of his hand, tilting it sideways and examining it. "No," she snapped, "don't put them back yet!"

He looked up at her in surprise. "Why? What are you doing?"

Lucy grinned at him, lifting the swatch up and comparing it to his hair. "Trying to figure out what shade of pink your hair is silly." She paused, and angled the piece of cardboard so that the nearby light was shining on it properly. "Nah, it's definitely not this one," she said, setting the swatch down on the shelf again. "It's way to light."

"What's it called?" he asked, grinning back at her. "Most of them have these hilarious names," he added when he saw her confused expression.

She picked up the swatch again and turned it over, giggling as she read the name written on the back. "You're right," she said as she held the card up for him to see, "this one's called 'Blushing Bride'!"

He snorted. "Told ya so." He then paused, as if he was thinking about something, before leaning over and dumping the rest of the swatches into her arms. "Well, if you insist on going through with this then I suppose you're gonna need these," he said slowly, the grin on his face widening.

Lucy giggled again. "Okay, let's do this!"

Trying to figure out the colour of Natsu's hair turned out to be pretty fun. They would pick a swatch and Lucy would hold it up to her partner's hair and compare the two, each time earning her weird look from a nearby customer or two. They would then read the name on the back of the swatch, often finding themselves dissolving into fits of laughter at some of the more ridiculous ones. So far Lucy's favourites were 'Dishing Coral', 'In the Pink', and 'A Street Car Named Inspire'.

Natsu, true to his food-loving personality, had declared his favourite to be the one entitled 'Bacon Pink'.

At one point an old woman had come up to them to complain, only to back off suddenly when Natsu had angled himself so she could see the guildmark tattooed on his shoulder, muttering to herself about 'those Fairy Tail brats'. As she had walked away Natsu had stuck his tongue out and pulled his face at her back, sending Lucy into yet another fit of giggles.

No one else had dared approach them yet, although the looks that some people had given them as they watched Lucy stand on her tiptoes and compare a paint swatch to Natsu's hair were absolutely priceless. For once in her life Lucy did not care about what other people thought of her, she was too caught up in the moment, in having fun with the man she loved.

Lucy smiled to herself as she watched her husband scour the shelves for any shades of pink they had missed. This was what she had missed most when Natsu had been away, she thought to herself. She had missed how when she was around him she was carefree and silly and could just exist, with absolutely no strings attached. She had missed all the fun they had together, all the messing around and the late night conversations and the midnight cuddles. She had missed him, and the way she felt when she was near him. Safe. Warm. Content. Happy. Home. Her hand subconsciously drifted to rest on her stomach, as it had been doing when she had felt particularly melancholy during those past few months, and her smile stretched even wider when she felt a reassuring tap against her palm.

She was pulled out of her daze by Natsu, who was waving yet another swatch in front of her face.

"Look Luce," he was saying, "this one's called 'Dragon Fruit'! I bet ya it'll match my hair."

Lucy looked it the swatch and raised her eyebrow questionably. While she knew that it would be extremely ironic if Natsu's hair was to turn out to be the shade of pink named after the fruit equivalent of the creature he adored so much, even when it was it was being waved in front of her eyes frantically she could tell that it was several shades darker then the mess of hair belonging to her husband. However, she humored him, taking the swatch when he handed it to her and holding it up against his head.

"Sorry, I think this one's a bit too dark," she said eventually, handing the piece of cardboard back to the crestfallen look on his face, she quickly looked around for something to distract him with when she spotted something pink poking out from underneath one of the nearby shelves. It was another swatch, she realised, and it had probably fallen there when Natsu had dropped the pile earlier.

"Hey look Natsu, I think I've found your shade of pink!"

He brightened up immediately. "Where?" She pointed it out, and he obediently walked over, crouching down and picking it up. "I betcha this is the salmon one," he said as he handed it to her. He grinned menacingly. "I can't wait to prove everyone at the guild wrong."

Lucy remained silent as she held the swatch up, tilting it this way and that to try and get the light to shine on it properly. She only spoke up when she was certain that this was the one. "I think this is it," she said, bringing her arm down and turning the card over to read it as she spoke.

Natsu beamed. "Great! Now, what's it called?"

She looked down, reading the carefully printed words written on the back of the swatch, before blushing and rereading theme again several times, muttering curses at the piece of cardboard as she went.

Seriously, of all the names in the world, it just had to be this one, didn't it?

"Luuuce," Natsu moaned, growing impatient at her lack of response. "What's it called?" He leaned over, trying to catch glimpse of the words, but Lucy stepped back, blocking his view of the swatch completely with hee free hand. "Luuuucy."

Wordlessly, she held the card up for him to read himself, watching as he squinted at it, and his brows furrowed slightly as he read the name 'Sexy Pink' over and over again.

After a moment of complete silence, Lucy found herself surprised at her partner's complete and utter lack of reaction. In fact, it was only when she herself was about to say something that he opened his mouth, and what came out definitely was not what Lucy had been expecting.

"Well," he said evenly, smirking down at her and making her heart flutter slightly in her chest, "at least it suits me."

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("But, I swear, you better not tell anyone at the guild!"

"No promises.")


	6. Early Morning Blues (ASOMUE 'verse)

SUMMARY: The early bird gets the worm... unless its name is Lucy Heartfilia. Or in which Lucy really wishes that she'd stayed in bed. (ASOMUE 'verse)

AN: Wooo a double update! Ish.

I just thought that I should let everyone know that I'm going away on holiday today, so I won't be able to update as frequently as I have been doing. However, if anyone still wants to leave a request then go on ahead! Hopefully the campsite will have wifi, and if it does then I might even be able to get some done...

...after I write the sequel to this for someone on tumblr *shudders*

Anyway, this is a sorta sequel to A Series of Mostly Unfortunate Events (which I posted on here a few days ago). I hope everyone enjoys it!

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"You what?!"

Lucy Heartfilia stared at the boy standing in her doorway, a look of pure shock on her face.

"Can I use your netflix account?" Natsu Dragneel repeated. "Ice prick changed the password on ours, and he won't tell me what it is until I confess my supposed undying love for Elfman." The pink haired boy shuddered. "I'd rather die then do that."

Lucy nodded absent-mindedly; she wouldn't really want to confess her undying love to Elfman either. For starters Mira would be all over her about being nice to her baby brother, then she would have Lisanna's constant teasing to deal with, never mind the fact that confessing your undying love for someone probably wouldn't be considered very manly, so she would also be forced to listen to the 'object of her affections' bawling his eyes out. Not to mention the fact that Elfman already had a girlfriend. The overall event would almost certainly be a disaster.

Wait, what the hell was she even thinking about?

Natsu interrupted her rather wayward train of thoughts by rudely waving a hand in front of her face. "Lucyyyyy, are you still in there?"

She swatted his hand away, before reaching up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. It was six o'clock on a rare Saturday morning when she didn't have to be in work until later, and right now she was supposed to be in her nice, warm, comfortable bed catching up on some well deserved rest. That is, she would be if she hadn't been woken up by her annoying neighbour and definitely-not-massive-crush with his weird requests.

"Pleaseeee Luce," he whined, and despite herself Lucy couldn't help but blush slightly at the use of her nickname. He had only started calling her 'Luce' recently, and although he probably just did it to annoy her, and although she pretended to hate it, every time she heard him say it she got a kind of warm and tingly feeling in her stomach, sort of like-

No.

Bad Lucy.

"Lucyyyyyyyy, you're spacing out again." Natsu's voice once again snapped her out of her daze, and she was quickly reminded of the current situation. She was standing in her doorway in her dressing gown and pink bunny slippers, her hair was a mess, she hadn't brushed her teeth or put on any makeup, and Natsu Dragneel was attempting to steal her Netflix account. Holy crap, she had to get out of this before she embarrassed herself any further.

"No," she said harshly. "No, you can't use my Netflix account. It is six-effing-o'clock in the morning, go bother someone else." And with that, she slammed the door in his face, before leaning against it and dramatically wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

Phew. Potential embarrassment crises averted.

Unfortunately though, she was now far to wide awake to even have a hope of getting any more sleep before her alarm went off. Ah well, she thought (surprisingly calmly), she could sleep in some other day. Right now it was time for a nice relaxing bath.

.

When Lucy returned into the main room of her apartment a few minutes later, equipped with everything she would need for her bath, she hadn't expected to find her pink haired neighbour lounging on her sofa, watching her TV and eating food from her kitchen.

Natsu looked up from his position on the couch, and smirked slightly when he caught her eye."You left the door unlocked," he said lightly, answering her unspoken question.

Lucy simply stared at him, absolutely dumbfounded.

Had he just broken into her apartment to watch Netflix?!

She took a deep breath, and then another one.

In through the nose, and out through the mouth.

Inner peace Lucy, inner peace.

When she had finally calmed herself down enough that she was able to move without literally kicking Natsu out of her flat, she opened her mouth and attempted to ask him to leave in a calm and civilised manor.

"I am going to go and have a bath now," she said slowly, doing her very best to not fly off the hook and throw something at him, "and when I get out you better be gone from here, or else."

"Or else what?" he said, munching on a handful of her pringles.

"Or else I'll tell Erza that you broke into my apartment while I was in the bath."

He froze, and as she watched all the colour drained from his skin. "You wouldn't." His voice can out as barely a whisper, and he sounded absolutely terrified. "She would murder me on the spot."

Lucy smiled sweetly at him. "That's your problem." And before he could say anything else she spun around on her heel and stalked off to her bathroom, muttering to herself about pink haired bastards as she went.

.

Lucy closed the bathroom door behind her and sighed. Despite the fact that she may or may not be head over heals in love with him, her and Natsu had never really gotten along well. However, ever since that... incident a few weeks ago she seemed to be running into him quite a lot. In fact, it was almost like he was going out of his way to see her, just so he could annoy her even more. It was really starting to get quite irritating.

Lucy sighed again, shaking her head slightly and beginning to undress herself. This was supposed to be a relaxing bath, which definitely wouldn't work if she spent the entire time pondering her most recent dilemma, who she hoped had left her apartment by now.

She was standing in her pyjama top and underwear when she realised that she hadn't turned the bath tap on yet. As she was leaning over to do so, she noticed something inside the tub out of the corner of her eye. She froze, turned her head sharply to look at it, and screamed.

The spider was absolutely huge, with long hairy legs, and at least the size if her fist. Lucy scrambled backwards until her back was against the opposite wall and stared at the monsterous animal.

If there was one thing Luy really hated, it was spiders. She was absolutely petrified of them. It was pathetic, she knew, spiders hadn't ever done anything to her, but they where just so creepy and disgusting and ew. And they showed up at the most unexpected times in the most unexpected places,

Like this giant one right now, sitting in her bath at six in the morning.

Which, despite all her shrieking and scrambling about the place, still hadn't moved.

Lucy let out the breath she didn't even realise she had been holding, and slowly took a few steps towards her bathtub, keeping her eyes on the spider the entire time.

It didn't even twitch.

Maybe it was dead.

She grabbed her hairbrush from where she had discarded it on the floor earlier, and cautiously reached out to poke the spider, in an attempt to discover whether or not the beast was still alive.

Not that a dead spider was any better.

In her minds eye the creature suddenly moved, jumping at her and racing up her arm. Lucy shuddered involuntary. She was being silly. It was just a spider.

Just a spider.

A massive, hairy spider with thick, long, black legs and potentially bloodsucking or poisonous fangs.

The tip of her hairbrush was about ten inches away. Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.

Nine inches.

In through the nose, and out through the mouth.

Eight inches.

Seven.

Six.

The spider's leg twitched.

Time seemed to slow down as Lucy's hairbrush slipped from her grasp and clattered to the ground, landing right next to the spider. The aforementioned animal immediately started moving away from the object, running across the bottom of the bathtub at an unfathomable speed. Lucy screamed again, louder this time, and quickly scrambled to her feet and raced out of the bathroom.

It was official, the sun wasn't even up and already this day couldn't get any worse.

Lucy made it out of the bathroom alive, and hurriedly slammed the door behind her. She leaned against it for a moment with her eyes closed, trying to get her breath back.

When she opend them again, she came face to face with Natsu.

Actually, scratch that. Things just got a whole lot worse.

"What are you still doing here?!" she practically shrieked. "I thought I told you to get out!" She stopped and panted, still out of breath from the events of a few moments ago.

"Well," he said defensively, folding his arms across his chest, "I was about to leave when I heard you screaming." He paused. "Are you alright?" he added softly.

Lucy could feel the blood rushing to her face, and a small part of her found itself wondering how she always seemed to end up embarrassing herself in front of Natsu Dragneel.

The rest of her was to busy panicking about what to do next to bother coming up with an answer.

"Yeah I'm uh, f-fine, thanks," she stammered. "I um, just stubbed my toe on the base of the sink. I'm okay, so you can leave now."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah right. What really happened?"

Lucy found herself glancing around her sitting room in an attempt to distract herself from the intense look that Natsu was giving her. Her eyes feel on the TV, which was still turned on ('just about to leave'? ha! as if!), and an idea slowly formed in her head.

"Actually Natsu," she said, managing to regain some of her lost composure. "I have a small favour to ask of you."

His look of concern turned to one of suspicion. "Okay..." he said apprehensivly.

"There is a um, rather large spider in my bathtub right now and I'd like you to remove it."

"All of that was because of a spider?" Lucy blushed even more at how amused he sounded.

"It was a really big one!" She snapped, crossing her arms across her chest.

He snorted. "Whatever. What's in it for me?"

That was the question she had been waiting for. "If you get rid of it I'll let you use my Netflix account."

Natsu's eyes lit up when he heard her offer, and he grinned at her. "Great!" he said enthusiastically. "I'm all fired up! Now show me where this spider is so I can kick its ass!"

Lucy smiled back at him, before turning around and opening the door behind her, leading him into the bathroom. The spider was sitting in the opposite side of the bath to where it had first been discovered, apparently unaware of the disturbance it had caused. Natsu froze when he saw it, the look of enthusiasm quickly disappearing from his face.

"Holy crap," he whispered. "That thing is ginormous."

Lucy couldn't help but smirk at that. "I told you so."

"Not that I'm scared of it or anything," he added quickly.

Lucy was to busy staring at the monster to notice the way his voice shook slightly. However, when he made no move do go and pick the spider up, she began to grow slightly suspicious.

"Natsu," she said, "are you-"

"Do you have something I can kill it with?" he said suddenly.

"Kill it!?" Lucy was almost surprised at how horrified she sounded. "Can't you just lift it outside?"

"Do you want me to get rid of it for you or not," he snapped, sounding irritated.

Lucy sighed and nodded, and he stalked out of the room, returning a few moments later with an a one-thousand-and-something page hardback copy of The Lord of the Rings. He crouched down beside the bath, and carefully lifted the book, positioning it so that it was directly over the spider.

"If you get any spider guts on that book then you have to replace it," Lucy warned. The book in question had been a birthday present from Levy, and although Lucy was yet to read it she still treasured it as one of her closest possessions.

"Yeah, yeah," Natsu murmured, "whatever you say Luce." And, without waiting for her to reply, he smashed the book down on top of the spider.

The creature moved at the last second, barely managing to dodge Natsu's blow. It scampered on to the book and froze there, as if hoping that it wouldn't be noticed. As Lucy watched him, Natsu cautiously lifted the book out of the bath, doing his best not to disturb the animal on top of it. He held the book up at eye level for a moment, as if he was examining the beast, before quickly spinning it over and slamming it to the ground. He stood there for a moment and tried to catch his breath, eyeing the book wearily and stamping on it a few times for good measure.

Lucy leaned over from her position on the far side of the bathroom, where she had been watching the events unfold from a safe distance. "Is it dead?" she asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure," Natsu replied, his gaze not moving from the book on the ground. "I think so."

Natsu's foot nudged the book and the spider shot out from underneath it. It appeared to be missing a couple of its legs, but even so it was still moving very quickly. Natsu attempted to stamp on it a few times, but it managed to dodge being crushed by his shoe. It made it to the bathtub and disappeared into the shadows underneath.

"Where's it gone?" Lucy asked slightly hysterically, glancing over her shoulder as she spoke to check that it hadn't magically materialized on the wall behind her.

"I think it went under the bath," Natsu replied, getting down on his hands and knees to check. "It's too dark though, I can't see anything."

Lucy felt something on her foot, and she had a horrible feeling that she knew what it was. She looked down and, sure enough, the spider was crawling up her bare ankle. She shrieked and waved her leg around, and Natsu looked up from the floor to find the spider hurtling through the air towards him. He scrambled to his feet and leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding falling into the bath, and the spider flew past him, landing on the wall, where it quickly scurried up out of their reach.

Lucy and Natsu glanced at each other, and both simultaneously dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind them.

"How about," Natsu gasped, when they had both recovered enough air to talk again, "you forget about the spider from hell for now, and you can come and have your bath at my place. We'll send Stripper in there later, and not let him out until he tells me the Netflix password."

Lucy had to laugh at that. "That sounds like a brilliant idea. Come on, lets go." She grabbed his wrist and began to drag him out of her flat.

She was halfway to the front door when Natsu spoke up again.

"Lucy."

"Yeah?" She glanced back at him and he smirked slightly.

"You might want to put some clothes on first."

Lucy froze, and slowly looked down at her partially clothed body. The t-shirt she wore to bed was barely decent, just about covering her ass and the top of her thighs. A look of horror covered her face as she realised that she had been practically naked for most of her encounter with Natsu, having been mostly undressed when she first noticed the spider. Thank god she still had her underwear on.

Her face turned an unfortunate colour of scarlet and she dashed out of the room, leaving a hysterical Natsu in her wake.


	7. Into the Woods (ASOMUE 'verse)

**AN: GUESS WHO'S BACK!**

 **I'm really sorry about the lack of updates over the past two weeks, the wifi at our campsite was horrendous.**

 **Anyway, I feel like I've been getting everyone's hopes up on fast updates, actually the only reason I've been uploading stuff so quickly is because all of these one shots were pre written from ages ago and I was uploading all of them at once because I was intending to use this fic as an archive for all my one shots and stuff. I've still got a few more things to upload, but when that happens I'm afraid that the only time I'll be postiing anything is when I write something for a request on her or tumblr or I get bitten by a merciless plot bunny that won't let go of me.**

 **On a more positive note, this was written for bieber-bower on tumblr's birthday, and is a sequel to my other fics ASOMUE and Early Morning Blues. I hope you all enjoy it!**

 **SUMMARY: Natsu and Lucy are sent of by their friends to collect firewood, and... things ensue. (But then again, don't they always?)**

.

Mud squeltched over her wellie boots as Lucy made her way back to their tents, pushing her dripping hair out of her face and cursing loudly when she nearly slipped. She pulled her damp coat tighter around her body in an attempt to block out the chill and sighed, wishing that she was anywhere in the world but where she was at that moment.

When her classes had finished for the mid term break, Lucy hadn't expected to find herself being dragged along by her friends on a camping trip, least of all to a muddy field in the middle of nowhere that Gray claimed to have stayed in once. And yet here she was, cold and wet and tired and carrying a bundle of sticks back to their campsite to be used as firewood, because *someone* (coughNatsucough) had forgotten to pack charcoal for the barbecue.

She made it back to the tents and dropped the sticks in a pile beside the barbecue. "Here's your bloody firewood," she said, slumping down in one of soaking chairs as she spoke.

"Someone's in a good mood," Natsu Dragneel muttered from where he was croutched beside the barbecue. He rolled his eyes and reached for the sticks, pausing when he grasped the nearest one. "It's wet," he snarled irritabily, staring up at her. "How the fuck do you expect me to build a fire with wet firewood."

"Of course it's wet dofus," she retorted, crossing her arms defensively. "Incase you didn't notice, it was raining earlier, and rain is often known to make things get wet." Raining was an understatement actually, it had been absolutely bucketing for their entire journey down, turning the field they were supposed to be camping in into a sea of mud and leaving not one dry stick in sight. Lucy had done her best to find some vaguely dry firewood, but when mixed in with the pile those few sticks had become just as damp as the rest.

"Stop bickering you two." Levy was siting nearby, examining the manual on how to put up the tent and occasionally shouting instructions to Gajeel and Jellal, who were both wrestling with the monstrous piece of canvas. "I hate to say it Lu, but Natsu's right. We're gonna need dry wood if we want to build a fire."

Lucy pouted. "Maybe we can just do without one then."

"Of course we need to have a fire!"

Lucy jumped at the indignant voice of her other friend, who had appeared behind her out of nowhere. Natsu glanced up, and Lucy noticed him shudder slightly at the sight of an enraged Erza. Gajeel and Levy both nodded hastily, mumbling hurried apologies, and quickly returned to their work, but Jellal was unfazed.

"You just want to toast marshmallows," he sighed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

"That may be so." Erza's voice was as brisk as ever, but when Lucy turned around she though she caught a hint of pink in the redhead's cheeks. "And we'll need a fire to do that. Natsu, Lucy, you two can go off and collect more firewood."

Natsu looked horrified. "Why me?" He moaned. "Isn't their anyone else who can do it?"

Erza glared at him. "No there isn't," she said sternly, "Gajeel, Jellal, Levy and I are putting up the tents and Gray and Juvia are filling up some water bottles."

Gajeel snorted. "I'll bet that's not all that they're doing," he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. He paused, and grinned wickedly at Natsu. "Go on Salamander, you should be good at this, considering how skilled you are at burning things down."

Levy was opening her mouth to chastise him, but Natsu cut her off, raising his hands in the air as a sign of defeat. "Okay okay," he said. "I get it. You are all jealous of my superior wood collecting skills and want the master go and show yous how it's done."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't put it exactly like that," she muttered under her breath.

Natsu ignored her. "Come on Luce," he said, getting to his feet and walking over to the edge of their campsite. "If we head deep enough into the forest we should be able to collect some dry sticks."

And with that, he strode off to the edge of the woods, leaving Lucy with nothing to do but follow.

.

"I'm freezing," Lucy moaned again, blowing on her hands and shivering in her damp coat. She quickened her pace slightly, taking small hurried steps in an attempt to keep up with Natsu's long strides.

He didn't even bother turning around. "So you've said," he retorted, and Lucy could hear the irritation in his voice. "Hurry up," he added briskly. "The sooner we collect enough firewood, the sooner we can get back."

"But we've been walking for ten minutes already," she complained. "And we've past plenty of wood. Look there's a tree." She pointed to a tree as they past it. "And another one. And yet another one. Wow, what an abundant supply of firewood, ripe for our taking."

He rolled his eyes. "But it's all still soaking," he explained, rubbing his hand across the bark of the nearest tree. "The further we get into this forest, the thicker the folage gets, and therefore dryer the wood underneath. Jeez Luce," he smirked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

Lucy ignored his jibe at her, and instead focused on something else. "Why do you always call me that?" She asked, curiosity seeping into her voice.

"Call you what?" He replied, glancing back at her.

"Luce."

He shrugged. "Why not? Levy and Gajeel both have nicknames for you, and I don't ever see you complaining about them."

That was slightly incorrect. While Levy calling her 'Lu' occasionally didn't bother her at all, Gajeel's pet name 'Bunny Girl', a reference to the first time he met her, was a different story entirely.

"I wasn't complaining!" She retorted, a little too quickly. "I was just, er, curious, that's all."

He nodded, understanding, and the two of them continued to walk in silence, lost in their own thoughts or listening to the sounds of nature around them. Twigs snapped under their feet, droplets of rain splashed through the canopy of leaves on to the forest floor below, mud squelched as they stepped in it, and the occasional flutter of a bird's wings could be heard in the distance.

"I like the sound of it," Natsu blurted out, breaking the silence between them.

"Huh?" Lucy had been so caught up in her own little bubble that she hadn't heard him properly, and what she thought she had heard him say didn't really make much sense.

"I like the sound of it," he repeated slowly, rubbing his neck and turning to face her slightly. "Your nickname. Luce. It think it sounds, em... better. It just rolls off your tongue easier. Luce. I kinda like saying it really."

She stared up at him, and for a moment he heald her gaze, looking into her eyes so intensly that Lucy thought he might bore a hole through her skull. He glanced away quickly though, turning his head to observe the forest in front of him, but Lucy thought she could see a hint of blush appearing on his cheeks.

"I can stop calling you it if it annoys you," he said quietly, fixing his gaze firmly ahead.

"You don't have to," she replied, shocked at his sudden willingness to, well, actually consider her feelings for once. "Like I said before, I was just wondering." She trailed off, not having the courage to add that she kindasortamaybe liked him calling her it too.

The silence between them was deafening, and Natsu cleared his throat awkwardly in an attempt to break it. "I think we've probably gotten far enough into this forest to start collecting sticks," he said, coming to a halt.

"Yeah," she responded quickly, grateful for the change of subject.

They split up, beginning to collect sticks and place them in a pile in between them. Despite how tiring the work was, Lucy was grateful at the distraction it was giving her from the awkward silence that had begun to grow again between her and Natsu. Soon however the collection of sticks had grown so large that adding too many more would make it impossible for them to carry the firewood back.

"D'ya reckon that that's enough?" Lucy questioned, dropping a few more twigs on to the pile.

Natsu glanced up from where he was squatted beside a log. "I think so." He paused. "Anyway, if our so called friends are unhappy with the quality of this wood, then they can damn well go and get their own."

Lucy nodded absent mindedly, neglecting to remind Natsu that it had been him who voiced the original complaint about the firewood she had collected. A thought struck her, and she cursed herself for not having realised it earlier. "How are we going to get all this wood back to the campsite?" She asked, annoyance colouring her voice.

Wordlessly Natsu got up and wandered over to where the wood had been piled up, crouching down beside it and pulling a penknife and a piece of rope from his pocket. As Lucy watched, he fiddled about with the items for a few minutes, managing to fashion a crude handle around the bundle, which he slung over his shoulder. "Voila," he said, grinning and making an extravagant jesture with his free hand. "The master firewood gatherer strikes again. Bow down to my awesomeness and superior firewood gathering skills."

For a moment Lucy grinned back, shaking her head at his antics, but now that she had stopped moving the cold had begun to set in again and she shivered, crossing her arms and rubbing her bare hands up and down her body in an attemot to generate heat. "Come on," she said, her teeth chattering noisily, "let's hurry up and get back to the others before it starts raining.

As if on cue, the sound of droplets of water hiting the canopy of leaves above them filled the air. Natsu looked up with a half annoyed half amused expression on his face. He smirked. "I think you jinxed it."

"God fecking bugger damn it," Lucy swore. "If there is one thing that could make this bloody camping trip even better, it is definitely rain." She lashed out, kicking the nearest tree in a fit of anger, and Natsu's smirk widened as he watched hop around, clutching her injured toe and cursing even more.

"I take it you don't like camping then," he said, folding his arms and observing her anger from a safe distance.

She stopped hopping around and glared at him. "It's not don't like it, it's just that I don't well... uh, like it."

He raised his eyebrows sceptically. "Well put," he snorted.

"Shut up!" She replied, her voice embarrassingly high. She stopped and took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. "Look," she said, managing to sound calmer, "it's getting quite late, we should probably head back now."

He nodded. "Yeah you're right, it's getting quite dark." Lucy could still hear the amusement in his voice, but at least he wasn't outright laughing at her any more.

She glanced around. He was right. Although it couldn't be more than seven o'clock, the days were getting shorter as he winter rolled in, and because of the thick folage above them there was barely any light seeping in. On the bright side, the leaves were also preventing the rain from getting through and, apart from the occasional large droplet, the forest floor was mostly dry.

"Okay," she said, "let's go!" She spun round and began to trudge back to the campsite, only to promptly trip over a root and go sprawling to the ground. She swore loudly, but her cursing turned into a strangled cry of pain when she landed awkwardly on her ankle.

Natsu's laughter filled the air and he doubled over, clutching his stomach and wiping away the tears that were streaming down his face. "That was smooth Luce," he gasped in between bursts of laughter, "real smooth."

"Stop laughing and help me up," she growled, trying unsuccessfully to push herself to her feet. "It's not funny," she added indignantly when he was overwhelmed by a fresh fit of laughter.

"Yes it is," he replied, grinning cheekily at her. He cast the bundle of wood to the ground and strode over, taking her by the hand and pulling her roughly to her feet. She stumbled into his chest, crying out again as she put her weight on her injured ankle, and he caught her by her arms.

"Asshole," she muttered as he set her down again, postioning her so that her back against a nearby tree and her ankle was stretched out in front of her.

He ignored her comment, frowning as he noticed how damp her coat was. "Jeez Luce," he muttered, glancing at her briefly. "No wonder you're so cold. Your coat is absolutely soaking."

Lucy huffed, rolling her eyes. It wasn't her fault that the only godforsaken coat she had brought with her wasn't waterproof.

Well, actually it kind of was, but that's not the point.

"Here."

Lucy looked up to discover that Natsu had taken his own jacket off and was now offering it to her. "Won't you get cold?" She asked, confused at his sudden act of kindness.

He smirked. "The day I get cold is the day Happy learns to fly," he said confidently. He hesitated, noticing the look she was giving him, and sighed. "Seriously Luce, I'll be fine. You look like you need it more than I do."

Lucy nodded, and began to undo the buttons on her coat. It was a slow and difficult process, seeing how numb her fingers had become, and she had to stop several times to blow on her frozen hands. By the fourth button it was clear Natsu's patience was growing thin, and after watching three failed attempts on her part to get it undone it had worn away completely. "Let me do it," he snapped, brushing her hands away and quickly popping the rest of the buttons open.

Lucy's face reddened at the implications of what he was doing, and she turned her head away to try and hide the blush creeping into her cheeks. She was alone in a forest with Natsu Dragneel, who, by the way, was currently undoing the buttons on her coat. Mind you, it was for a completely innocent and totally plausible reason, but even so that didn't stop certain... naughtier parts of her mind from drifting off on their own paths.

You're alone with Natsu, a part of her whispered. Anything could happen.

His free hand trailed down her side, resting on the earth beside her hip and Lucy's stomach fluttered as she realised how close he was kneeling. He finished the last button and glanced up, and suddenly his face was only a few inches from her own, so close that their noses were practically touching, and that annoying part of her couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to close the miniscule distance between them to press her lips against his,

No, bad Lucy.

Natsu pulled away and stood up, breaking the spell between them and taking her jacket with him while simultaneously dropping his own on her lap. She shrugged his jacket on, noting how cozy it was and how nice it smelled, and looked up at him, watching as he yawned and raised his arms above his head. His t-shirt rode up his stomach as he stretched, and Lucy caught a glimpse of the toned abs beneath. In fact, she was so caught up in staring at his exposed muscles that it took her a moment to register that he was speaking.

"It's to dark for me to have a look at your ankle," he was saying, and Lucy found herself nodding to show she was listening, "but if we can get you back to the campsite I think one of the girls has a first aid kit with them." He paused, looking down at her with a tired expression on his face. "I think we've already deduced that you won't be able to walk that far, so I guess I'll have to carry you."

Unbidden, an image of Natsu carrying her bridal style through the forest popped into Lucy's mind, and she had to fight to keep the blush on her face from darkening. "Carry me," she said slowly, doing her best to keep her voice from wavering, "as in-"

He sighed. "I'll give you a piggy back ride."

Relief coiled in Lucy's stomach, grateful that he had offered to give her a piggyback over the more... intimate alternative. Wordlessly, he crouched in front of her, offering his back for her to climb on to and, after much struggling and cursing from both of them, Lucy finally managed to get herself into a decently comfortable position on his back. Natsu hooked his arm through the rope that held the bundle of sticks together and stood up, groaning as he adjusted to the weight in his arms.

"Are you sure you'll be okay walking back like this?" Lucy asked, concern creeping into her voice. "I mean, well, I could probably manage to get back on my own, if you want to go on ahead." She tailed off, realising with a jolt that she did not want to be left in this forest on her own, even if the alternative was being carried back by Natsu. While she was grateful for his efforts, being given a piggyback by her supposed 'worst enemy' and still-definitely-not-massive-crush through a forest could come off as rather, well, humiliating.

Not to mention the fact that she could actually feel his muscles through his t-shirt, making her feel quite uncomfortable while also forcing her to try and resist the urge to grope them a bit.

Still she'd take this over the alternative any day.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Natsu said lightly, in response to her earlier question. "I'm not sure you'd be able to make it back on your own anyway, and Erza would kill me if I left you to die in the woods." His tone was casual, unconcerned, but there was a edge to it, one that Lucy was having a hard time identifying, and the way his muscles had clenched at the mention of leaving her to die in the forest had given her a fluttery feeling in her chest.

Their progress through the forest was slow, Natsu trudging along diligently while being careful not to trip over anything, lest he fall and end up injuring both of them. It had grown even darker, and Lucy found herself wondering how he was managing to see the ground without a source of light when she could barely see ten feet in front of them. She would have asked him, but he seemed lost in his own thoughts and she was quite enjoying the silence anyway.

She leaned against him, lifting her head up and watching the trees go past. The piggyback was surprisingly comfy and, despite the painful throbbing of her ankle, she was actually quite enjoying herself. Her eyelids were beginning to grow heavy, and she found herself beginning to fall asleep.

Lucy yawned, snuggling closer to the Natsu's back and resting her head against the bottom of his neck. She closed her eyes and smiled, stifling yet another yawn. When had she gotten so tired?

For a while she resisted the urge to sleep, but the sooting rocking that came with Natsu's long strides combined with the snugness of his jacket and the heat of his body pressed against hers was making it hard to do so. She borrows deeper into his back, curling round him even tighter and absorbing even more of his warmth.

So... tired...

Maybe she could just nap for a couple of minutes.

And as Lucy Heartfilia gave up and fell into her slumber, her last conscious thought was that maybe camping wasn't so bad after all.

.

Natsu smiled to himself, listening to Lucy's adorable little snores and picturing what her face must look like right now. She had fallen asleep about ten minutes ago and, while he was obviously going to tease her mercilessly about this later, for that moment he was quite content to let her sleep. In fact, he had slowed his walking pace considerably in the hopes of prolonging the journey back and, despite the ache in his arms, he would have carried her around like this for the rest of his life if he could.

His smile widened as she murmured something in her sleep, squirming slightly and nuzzling closer to him.

She was going to kill him later, he mused, for teasing her or not waking her up or some other far fetched reason that they both knew was total bullshit, but it was totally worth it.

After all, she looked so cute when she was mad.

Humming quietly to himself, Natsu listened to the breathing of the girl he loved against his neck, hitching her up his back slightly and sighing to himself.

Yup, no matter how much she got angry at him, no matter how much she cursed and shouted and stomped her foot like a child, moments like this were always worth it.

And as far as Natsu Dragneel was concerned, they always would be.

.

 **AN: I love camping, so don't think Lucy's views in this reflect mine at all**


End file.
